Rees named Gisborne club Driver of the Year

IN A BLUR: Superstock driver Peter Rees was captured by Gisborne Herald photographer Liam Clayton in a moment of triumph at Gisborne Speedway Club’s opening night meeting last November. Rees had just won a race in the four-race first round of the MTF Superstocks Points Dash. To lift the image of a lap of honour out of the ordinary, Clayton used a slow shutter speed and panned the camera to follow the progress of Rees’s car. The blurred images at the foot of the picture are other cars travelling in the opposite direction, returning to the pits. Picture by Liam Clayton

Stockcar and superstocks legend Peter Rees was named Driver of the Year at the Gisborne Speedway Club awards night on Saturday, and he was “blown away” by it.

Speedway club members and supporters gathered at the Cosmopolitan Club for the rescheduled awards function.

Rees, captain of the Gisborne Giants superstocks team, said the award came as a big surprise.

“It’s great, obviously. I would never have thought I would get that award, so it was a big surprise.

“I was absolutely stoked. It blew me away.”

“In my view it really should go to a Gisborne-based driver, so I’m especially honoured to receive it.”

Foxton-based Rees joined the Gisborne Speedway Club with his sons Ethan and Asher five years ago and has been a strong force in the development of the stockcar class in Gisborne, and the emergence of the Gisborne Giants superstock team.

The Giants have featured at a national level in each season since they were re-formed four years ago.

Last season they finished runners-up in the New Zealand teams event in Palmerston North, and were third in the other national superstock teams event in Auckland.

“It means a lot to me, and to Ethan, to be part of the Gisborne club,” Rees, 49, said.

“Coming to Gisborne has kept me in the sport. When we were racing out of Palmerston North I was getting bored, and was basically on my way out of the sport.

“But coming to Gisborne has revived me.”

Rees said he and Ethan had kept coming back to Gisborne each season because of the level of appreciation shown by local club members and fans.

“We hear ‘thanks for coming’ hundreds of times whenever we come here, and that’s what keeps us coming.”

Rees has won the New Zealand stockcar title five times, and the superstock championship once.

No other stockcar driver has a record that compares, and he has long been regarded as a ‘legend’ in the sport.

He has also won the prestigous Robin Pratt Memorial stockcar title in Palmerston North seven times over the 18 years he contested it.

“That’s something I am particularly proud of because Robin was a good mate of mine.”

In announcing the driver-of-the-year award, superstock rep Trevor Mullooly said it was going “to the one and only Peter Rees”.

“This man loves the sport of speedway immensely,” Mullooly said.

“He’s helped us with certain things behind the scenes and brought some of the best superstocks in the country into our club with a ‘G’ on them.

“Pete’s a teams racer extraordinaire and a great member of our club.”

The Youth Competitor of the Year was ministocker Cassy Robertson.

“This young lady showed good sportsmanship both on and off the race track and didn’t get caught up in the hype and overreactions of race meetings,” the award citation read.